You’ve watched Patrick Gower: On Ice… now what?

‘People don’t spring into action just because they see smoke; they spring into action because they see others rushing in with water.’

Kia ora! Welcome to Future Proof. Thanks for joining me. This week: air pollution, water pollution, and too many single-use memes. But first: what to do with the big feels brought on by seeing the big changes in the big icy continent.

Paddy Gower delivers the fuckin’ news on climate change in his two-part series Patrick Gower: On Ice. 

He travels down to Antarctica to hang out with scientists documenting dramatic changes at the bottom of the world, driven by fossil-fuel-induced heating of the Earth’s atmosphere. 

He tags along with Extinction Rebellion, meets a climate-denying boomer couple who ironically live behind a seawall, and talks to a family who lost their house in Cyclone Gabrielle. “Without question, it’s the most important piece of work I’ve done,” he says.

It’s a good watch. It balances the existential threat of climate change (hella scary) with moments of hope and humour. Andrea Vance has a great overview and interview with Gower for The Sunday Star Times (paywall).

In one scene, Gower asks the scientist Jordy Hendrikx, “Individual change will only get us so far in fixing this, won’t it?”

“A big part of individual change is that it drives governments to see where the people wanna go,” Hendrikx replies.

So, how does that work in practice? You’ve watched On Ice, you’re feeling all the feels, but does individual action really matter?

Personal change drives systemic change

Swapping a car trip for a bike ride might feel inconsequential in the face of Taylor Swift’s private jets. But there are two really good reasons to make those little lifestyle tweaks – and no, it’s not really about adding up all the little bits of carbon savings. 

The first reason is that doing something feels good. As another scientist told Gower: “It feels shit to leave something like shit.” On the flip side, doing something to leave the world a little less shit is joyful and life-affirming. And don’t we all need a little bit more joy right now?

The second reason to make personal change is that humans are social animals. We pick up what the people around us are doing. We follow trends. “People don’t spring into action just because they see smoke; they spring into action because they see others rushing in with water,” Leor Hackel and Gregg Sparkman write in Slate. 

In this ripple-effect way, lifestyle change can build systemic change. So get those solar panels, and maybe your neighbour will too. Ride your bike to work, and maybe your colleagues will notice how you don’t spend ages circling for a spenny carpark. Explore locally and maybe your family and friends will be inspired to avoid being pretzeled up on a long-haul flight, and instead holiday right here in Aotearoa.

Use your voice, and vote

We can’t just rely on trickle-up change to reach politicians, though. Using your voice is important too. While we don’t all have the platform Gower has, we can have our say in other ways: firstly, by voting for those who will take global heating seriously. According to a survey of climate experts, voting is the most impactful climate action you can take.

In between election seasons, you can use your voice by making submissions on important bits of legislation. That one can feel intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. The Climate Club offers a weekly newsletter featuring small, simple suggestions for ways to have your say, alongside heaps of guidance to make it easy.

PS: If, after watching On Ice, you’re wondering why we don’t just roll out the methane-busting red seaweed across farms right away, it’s actually logistically quite tricky for New Zealand’s pasture-based farming system. More in this article from Nikki Macdonald.

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Swimming in the Seine made Olympians sick. Are our urban swim spots any better?

Multiple Olympians, including New Zealand triathlete Hayden Wilde, picked up nasty E. coli infections after competing in the Seine river. But are Auckland’s beaches after rain any better? Shanti Mathias finds that we have different “safe swim” limits, but the poo pollution problem is exactly the same.

South Korea recycles 98% of its food waste

Twenty years ago, South Korea chucked out 98% of its food waste, leaving it to rot, stink and release planet-heating methane gas in landfill. But a mandated nationwide programme to separate out food scraps from other rubbish now means the country recycles 98% of food waste into feed, compost or energy. Initially met with pushback, food scrap recycling is now an ingrained part of daily life – although the amount of food waste hasn’t dropped.

Deep-sea mining agency replaces top official accused of close industry ties

The international authority tasked with coming up with environmental regulations for deep-sea mining has a new top boss: Leticia Carvalho, an oceanographer from Brazil and a United Nations environmental regulator. The change comes after long-serving executive Michael Lodge was ousted in a vote, having been accused by environmentalists of working behind the scenes with companies who want to accelerate deep-sea mining (claims he denies). More than 30 countries have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, while Carvalho said she believed finalising environmental regulations could take several years. Carbon Brief has an excellent explainer on deep-sea mining, and what it means for climate change and biodiversity.

Coming soon: Takeout Kids season two

Coming-of-age documentary series Takeout Kids returns next week for season two, centred on the lives of five young people growing up between the classroom, home and their parents’ shops. Episode one premieres Tuesday August 20 on The Spinoff. Made with the support of NZ On Air.

More stories

• As a fellow ebiker, I enjoyed this foray into ebiking by The Spinoff’s Liv Sisson: “I pace myself against some big trucks crawling along the adjacent motorway. I’m faster by miles.” Always a good feeling to beat the cars!

• It’s not just planned parks and landscaped gardens: informal green spaces in cities can provide all the same benefits for people and nature.

• Air pollution in New Zealand kills thousands of people every year – so why are our national standards so why are our standards out of sync with best practice? Shanti Mathias investigates our dirty air.

• In 2022, 50 million sponges off the Fiordland coast bleached and died in a marine heatwave. Scientists have discovered that the survivors have different tiny microbes living within them – suggesting some hope the organisms might adapt to warming waters.

• Kathryn van Beek’s essay on the Swiss wolf who walked 2,000km for love, and what happens when we insert ourselves in the lives of animals.

• CNN canvasses Māori-led efforts to protect the land, sea and dark night sky in the South Island: “There’s no reason why we can’t have society and still respect the Earth, and we’re showing you can do it.”

Image credit: Yuumei Art. (The comic she’s looking at is this one.)

To finish this edition: the Lofi Girl reimagined for the climate change era by Yuumei Art. Most data – memes, photos, emails – is single-use “dark data”, meaning it’s looked at once then never again, according to new research. For companies, 68% of data is never used again, and it’s likely a similar story for personal data. Here’s more on the climate cost of your digital life from a previous edition.

Taking a byte out of climeme change by deleting old selfies,

Ellen

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Got some feedback about Future Proof or topics you’d like covered? Get in touch with me at futureproof@thespinoff.co.nz